The Legislation Council at the Albanian Parliament started the public
hearing session for collecting the opinions of different experts
regarding the immunity law.
Parliament Speaker Jozefina Topalli, declared that the DP has adopted the draft law of the EURALIUS’ experts. The Socialist vice chairman of the Commission of Laws, Fatmir Xhafaj, declared that they have the right to question every comma of that draft. Tilman Hoppe, expert of the PACA, declared that the proposition of both parties reach the standards of PACA. “The DP proposition makes us happy, because it was proposed by EURALIUS, and it seems more adequate. However, the SP proposition reaches the EU standards.
“OPTAT and PACA have reasoned in an independent and autonomous way. It is not strange that our propositions coincide, and there could be coincidences between what we proposed and what the other actors have proposed. However, I have to say that the immunity issue is being treated carefully, and we think that this can be fixed by amending the Constitution. The immunity is lifted through consensus, in every country of the world”, Hoppe declared.
The EURALIUS expert, Joaquin Urias, explained the propositions that are related with the Supreme Court.
“The EURALIUS propositions have a long-term platform. The only point where there is a difference between the propositions is related with the Supreme Court. Our propositions aim that the Supreme Court should turn into a career court. We believe that this court should be included in the judiciary career system. Today, the Albanian Supreme Court judges are only apopinted by the Parliament. EURALIUS proposed that the Supreme Court judges should have the same position as the other judges. The situation in the Supreme Court today is not as we would want it to be. The other proposition makes us understnd that the position of the Supreme Court judges is different, because it is not considered as a career Court. It is completely up to the Albanian Parliament to decide if in the future you want to have a more adequate solution than the current situation, or a configuration according our view”, Urias declared.
The PACA expert gave detailed explanations referring to the international practice for the arrest of an MP. The international practice, according to him, is that the prosecutors are allowed to inspect the residence of an MP. The expert proposed that the inspection of the MPs’ houses should be provided by the Penal Code, and not the Constitution. According to him, in such cases, the Parliament should be informed in the moment of the arrest, and there is no need for any article about MPs being caught in the act.
The Democratic Party chairman of the Commission of Laws, Ilir Rusmaili, declared that the questions to the experts help those who are skeptic about this law. According to the EURALIUS expert, slander is a very delicate matter, because for the MPs is better to be allowed to say something even if it is not true, than not have the right to speech. He declared that he is against the penal prosecution of MPs for slander.
Top Channel
